Will Anthony Famiglietti run sub-4 at 40? Milestone is goal of steeple Olympian

Anthony Famiglietti, at 2008 Eugene Trials, has hurdles to clear on way to mile goal. Photo by Charlie Riedel

Anthony Famiglietti, a two-time Olympian with a mile PR of 3:55.71 (in 2006), turns 40 in five months. He’s gearing up by training hard, pitching a documentary and letting the world know he’s shooting for a sub-4. It’s a stretch. But you gotta admire the grit. See Martin Fritz Huber’s story in Outside. The former steepler’s “moonshot mile is perhaps an unusual way to confront the beast of senescence, but it makes a crazy kind of sense. When you’ve spent more than half your life constructing your identity around the fact that you can run faster than 99.99 percent of the world’s population, it’s not easy to let go,” Martin writes.

More: “Famiglietti says he is taking his current training very seriously. He is being coached by Alan Webb, the American record holder in the mile. The main challenge is dealing with accumulated injury, like severe arthritis in his right foot and ankle joints that have taken a beating from years of competitive steeplechasing.”

Fams says: “Sometimes, when I start to run, my left foot will dislocate and I’ll have to run up to a tree, place it between the branches, and pop it back into place.”

Occasionally he will solicit help from a lucky stranger, Martin adds.

Of course, Fams would be fourth to break 4 — after Eamonn Coghlan (indoors in 1994), Bernard Lagat (indoors in 2015) and Anthony Whiteman (outdoors in 2012.)

What do you think?


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About the Author

Ken Stone
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and webmaster since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials. He worked for 10 newspapers and now reports for Times of San Diego. Write him at TrackCEO@aol.com or kens@timesofandiego.com. Story tips always welcome!

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